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Solid Snake's Contest History
Who is Solid Snake? Solid Snake is the last hope we have going for us all. He is the only one standing between the shithole world we live in now and the shithole world we live in now......only with a plethora of nuclear bomb craters being the difference in the latter. Sent in against all odds, Solid Snake uses his stealth and battle tactics to defy those odds and save the Earth from nuclear devastation. His most popular venture into the world of video games would be the PSX smash hit, Metal Gear Solid, however Snake's video game roots run quite deep. "David" goes way back to the NES days under the clever guise of "Metal Gear" (so confusing.....) Solid Snake's badass character and unshakeable poise is the biggest thing going for him in the field and is what separates him from the pack in the Summer Contest. To vote against Solid Snake is to vote against one of the biggest badasses in video gaming, and as seen by his success in the Summer Contest.....that's very difficult to do. "The cardboard box that you have is ideal for fooling your enemies. It's a very important tool for infiltration missions." - Solid Snake Solid Snake's Contest History Win-Loss Record: 42-11 Summer 2002 Contest - East Division - 2 Seed * Eastern Round 1--- Defeated (15) Squall Leonhart, 46897 65.43% - 24779 34.57% * Eastern Quarterfinal --- Defeated (7) Knuckles the Echidna, 41335 60.71% - 26748 39.29% * Eastern Semifinal --- Defeated (11) Aeris, 42545 56.54% - 32702 43.46% * Eastern Final --- Lost to (5) Crono, 46697 47.07% - 52517 52.93% * Extrapolated Strength --- 9th Place 35.23% Summer 2003 Contest - West Division - 1 Seed * Western Round 1 --- Defeated (16) Raiden, 84638 82.88% - 17480 17.12% * Western Quarterfinal--- Defeated (8) Knuckles the Echidna, 61038 63.13% - 35646 36.87% * Western Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Ryu, 61510 57.26% - 45915 42.74% * Western Final --- Lost to (1) Mega Man, 55322 46.50% - 63639 53.50% * Extrapolated Strength --- 8th Place 34.74% Summer 2004 Contest - 20XX Division - 2 Seed * 20XX Round 1 --- Defeated (15) Tanner, 74251 94.30% - 4492 5.70% * 20XX Quarterfinal --- Defeated (10) Knuckles the Echidna, 48481 59.54% - 32946 40.46% * 20XX Semifinal --- Defeated (6) Frog, 44992 51.39% - 42563 48.61% * 20XX Final --- Lost to (1) Mega Man, 37517 42.81% - 50116 57.19% * Extrapolated Strength --- 12th Place 30.82% Solid Snake has been a monster against average strengthed characters year in and year out. He can also hang around with the best of them in big matches, however he just doesn't have that extra bite to pull off a shocking win against some of the big name Square and Nintendo names in the field. As a character that DOESN'T hail from either Square or Nintendo's camp, Solid Snake does a hell of a job. Beating up on poor echidnas seems to be this man's main hobby as he's been the death of Knuckles in every Summer Contest to date, but Knux always puts up a good fight. On the other side of the coin, Mega Man has twice doused Snake in a division finals match, with the latest brawl being further from the first result in terms of vote difference, thus it's safe to say that Solid Snake won't be taking down Mega Man anytime soon. Solid Snake can take pride in one amazing feat though. He is the closest any character has come to pitching a perfect no-hitter in vote numbers. Tanner could only manage a pathetic 4492 votes against Snake in a 2004 Round 1 clash, the worst vote numbers in ANY contest. Snake fans can be a bit worried of their man's place amongst the elite after a scare from Chrono Trigger's Frog in 2004. The newcomer amphibian put up a startling 48.6% on the champion of Metal Gear after winning the match against "brother" Liquid Snake with 50.05% earlier in Round 1. The close match against what many believed to be an "average strengthed" Square character does not bode well for contest success in the near future for Solid Snake. However, the Metal Gear name has proven to be strong thanks to Liquid's efforts vs Frog. It's all in the genes, I suppose......... Solid Snake certainly won't be winning any tournaments with powerhouses like Link, Sephiroth and Cloud in the running but he WILL go deep into the tournament year in and year out. The Final Four is out of reach so far for Snake, but with MGS3 on it's way (never mind that it most likely won't BE Solid Snake as the lead man in MGS3....), Solid Snake's reputation as a badass and fan base will constantly grow. Summer 2005 Contest - Gear Division - 1 Seed * Gear Round 1 --- Defeated (8) Manny Calavera, 77063 84.09% - 14576 15.91% * Gear Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Zelda, 58421 54.41% - 48941 45.59% * Gear Final --- Defeated (2) Sora, 63664 65.26% - 33887 34.74% * Contest Quarterfinal --- Defeated (3) Bowser, 51387 50.59% - 50191 49.41% * Contest Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Mario, 44483 42.79% - 59463 57.21% * Extrapolated Strength --- 9th Place 33.88% After three years straight of going down in the Elite 8, Solid Snake was finally able to get over the hump and into the Final Four in a big way. And it wasn't just him getting to the Final Four that was awesome, but how he did it. Snake was discredited after virtually every one of his matches, and Bowser taking him down in the Elite 8 this year was a very sexy upset special given what Bowser did in Spring 2005. The rumblings got very loud after Snake was "only" able to score 84% against Manny Calavera in a match where most people were expecting another Snake/Tanner affair. In fact, the ridiculous expectations laid upon Snake were so bad that people even expected him to lose to Zelda. But people started believing in Snake somewhat after he beat Zelda with the worst picture we've ever seen in a contest match, followed by him absolutely tearing Sora to bits. Snake had all the momentum heading into his match with Bowser, at least until the Elite 8 round were filled with sprite match pics. However, despite all of the whining about how Snake was being screwed over by the match pic, he took off against Bowser, held off Bowser's comeback attempt and got into the Final Four in dramatic fashion. Yes he was destined to being little more than Mario's sock puppet, but Snake actually did fairly well given the momentum that Mario had going into that match. Snake even found it within himself to win a few updates, and for most Snake fans this was satisfaction enough. It isn't known whether or not Snake will ever truly get over the hump and into the contest elites (or if he'll even find himself as something other than the weak link of the Noble Nine....), but this was a contest performance that cannot be taken away from him. Summer 2006 Contest - Patriot Division - 1 Seed * Patriot Round 1 --- Defeated (8) Soma Cruz, 89697 82.15% - 19487 17.85% * Patriot Semifinal --- Defeated (4) Squall, 78314 57.59% - 57666 42.41% * Patriot Final --- Defeated (6) Yoshi, 69085 57.16% - 51781 42.84% * Elite Eight --- Defeated (2) Mega Man, 70163 55.33% - 56648 44.67% * Final Four --- Defeated (1) Sonic the Hedgehog, 75864 54.99% - 62097 45.01% * Finals --- Lost to (1) Samus, 59987 46.89% - 67947 53.11% * Extrapolated Strength --- 3rd Place 46.89% Battle Royale * Battle Royale Day 1 --- Outlasted Samus, 20903 13.12% - 12335 7.74% * Battle Royale Day 2 --- Outlasted Mario, 20954 14.76% - 15878 11.18% * Battle Royale Day 3 --- Outlasted Sephiroth, 22810 16.83% - 22754 16.79% * Battle Royale Day 4 --- Lost to Cloud, 29733 19.64% - 54057 35.71% Regardless of any result in this contest, Snake stole the show with his earlier than expected Smash Brothers Brawl boost. He completely embarrassed the main bracket, only lost to Samus because of Nintendo SFF, got his revenge on her and then some in the Battle Royale, then outlasted Sephiroth and placed third in the BR just for kicks. It was aided by a very phony final update on the BR's third day, but the end result is that Snake just earned himself one of the highest upsides of any elite character in these contests. Assuming Samus is booted from the main bracket come to next character battle, Snake is the clear favorite to win the next contest. Summer 2007 Contest - Division 7 - Third Group * Division 7 Round 1 --- 1st place, 73706 57.88% - Nightmare, 28609 22.47% - Vyse, 13380 10.51% - Rayman, 11649 9.15% * Division 7 Round 2 --- 1st place, 60407 47.72% - Riku, 24596 19.43% - Ryu Hayabusa, 23942 18.91% - Nightmare, 17654 13.94% * Division 7 Final --- 1st place, 46201 32.44% - L-Block, 40744 28.63% - Kratos, 29772 20.91% - Riku, 25656 18.02% * Contest Quarterfinal --- 2nd place, 44489 28.86% - L-Block, 44753 29.03% - Sonic the Hedgehog, 33339 21.63% - Squall Leonhart, 31584 20.49% * Contest Semifinal --- 2nd place, 43081 26.20% - L-Block, 56925 34.63% - Master Chief, 39515 24.04% - Dante Sparda, 24880 15.13% * Contest Final --- 4th place, 23964 12.27% - L-Block, 65462 33.51% - Link, 58100 29.74% - Cloud Strife, 47834 24.49% A very successful contest for Solid Snake was overshadowed by the fact that he spent four of those matches paired up with the L-Block. He made it to the finals of the contest for the second straight year, something only Cloud or Link can boast about. Snake was also involved in one of the best matches of the contest, as he duked it out with L-Block for first place while Sonic and Squall battled for third place, which also featured some of the best match pictures we've ever seen. One of the little ironic moments for me is that the only time Snake placed ahead of L-Block was when he had his infamously horrible sprite. Summer 2008 Contest - Division 5 - Fourth Group * Division 5 Round 1 --- 1st place, 69800 51.60% - Vivi Ornitier, 35210 25.96% - Albert Wesker, 16919 12.51% - Sackboy, 13439 9.93% * Division 5 Round 2 --- 1st place, 58327 43.55% - Zero, 28658 21.40% - Vivi Ornitier, 28251 21.10% - Ryu Hayabusa, 18682 13.95% * Division 5 Final --- 1st place, 55084 37.59% - Weighted Companion Cube, 35000 23.88% - Mega Man, 34762 23.72% - Zero, 21706 14.81% * Contest Quarterfinal --- 2nd place, 39971 29.14% - Cloud Strife, 52686 38.41% - Weighted Companion Cube, 26314 19.19% - Mewtwo, 18206 13.27% * Contest Semifinal --- 1st place, 42250 30.74% - Cloud Strife, 41927 30.50% - Kirby, 31149 22.66% - Sephiroth, 22134 16.10% * Contest Final --- 2nd place, 40663 27.76% - Link, 49345 33.68% - Cloud Strife, 38581 26.33% - Crono, 17916 12.23% Snake didn't face any competition until the Quarterfinals where Cloud dominated. Snake was able to place 1st the very next round because of Sephiroth in the poll which held back Cloud. At least, that's what we thought was the case. Snake successfully beat out Cloud for 2nd place in the contest. A feat that will spark major controversy in the battles to come. Winter 2010 Contest - Gear Division - 1 Seed * Gear Round 1 --- Defeated (16) Protoman, 37482 72.35% - 14321 27.65% * Gear Round 2 --- Defeated (9) Fox McCloud, 33713 67.03% - 16581 32.97% * Gear Semifinal --- Defeated (5) Pikachu, 28345 55.20% - 23003 44.80% * Gear Final --- Defeated (2) Squall Leonhart, 32810 59.17% - 22638 40.83% * Contest Quarterfinal --- Defeated (1) Sephiroth, 45954 52.96% - 40822 47.04% * Contest Semifinal --- Lost to (1) Cloud Strife, 65596 52.09% - 60240 47.91% * Extrapolated Strength --- 3rd Place 44.52% When the bracket was released, all eyes went straight to the Snake vs. Sephiroth match-up. Snake had already beat Sephiroth twice before in unconventional circumstances and now it could put to the test. Snake's first two matches were no brainers although people were talking about him underperforming. The Pikachu and Snake match was especially close, but we'll blame that on Solid Shit. Squall went down without a problem and then the match with Sephiroth occurred. Just prior, Sephiroth had barely managed to beat Missingno. and almost ruined the chances of an epic match-up. The match was close but Sephiroth never led and only won an update late into the match. With a dominating victory, people were calling that he'd lay waste to Cloud as well. Unfortunately for Snake, Cloud is a bit more powerful and after Snake led for a couple hours Cloud stormed back and won by 5000. Summer 2013 Contest - Division 4 - 1 Seed * Division 4 Round 1 --- 1st place, 23261 71.21% - (16) Isaac, 6637 20.32% - (27) Commander Keen, 2769 8.48% * Division 4 Round 2 --- 1st place, 18191 60.57% - (6) Alucard, 6845 22.79% - (9) Bayonetta, 4996 16.64% * Division 4 Final --- 1st place, 22129 47.58% - (2) GlaDOS, 12225 26.28% - (7) Kefka, 12156 26.14% * Contest Semifinal --- 1st place, 25799 51.12% - (6) Pikachu, 12919 25.6% - (5) Squirtle, 1175423.29% * Contest Final --- 2nd place, 49025 32.81% - (3) Draven 73396 49.13%, - (1) Samus Aran, 26981 18.06% * Bonus Match --- Lost to Link, 30420 53.48% - 26465 46.52% Snake had plenty in place for his first contest title. Unfortunadely, he wound up stumbling in a massive rally in the ending to prevent it. He performed like a beast in the first two rounds, and despite having two pieces fit for the anti-Noble Nine (instead of the usual anti-Clinkeroth) sentiment in dark horse Kefka and memetastic GlaDOS, still got out of his division. While Pokémon having a boost, having two in the same match cancelled each other and Snake won the semifinal easily. To make sure Reddit's campaign for Draven didn't lead to his win in the finals, Board 8 then tried to counteract with rallies of their own, including putting actual Metal Gear people in contact: Hideo Kojima retweeted a request for support, David Hayter did some tweets (including an epic burn) and Jennifer Hale (who coincidentally also voiced third party Samus in the Prime games) followed suit upon seeing Hayter's campaign. Wrestler Trent Barreta, who had already rallied for Link at the request of B8er, did the same. Yet while this cut Draven's lead to a manageable hundreds - which could be surpassed despite Samus leeching votes - once excessive interference in the League of Legends subReddit rally lead to a post by one of the mods that became basically a sticky given the high traffic (it was the first day of the LoL World Championships) Draven's lead got to over 20,000 and all was set up for the League of Draven's victory. But wait! Sailor Bacon was fed up with the Redditors and made the poll that set up a Link/Draven bonus be overlapped with another that picked Link/Snake - the old champion and the moral/site champion. Board 8 rejoiced, did awesome match pics and didn't complain when Link won. Moral champion or not, Snake didn't disappoint during the contest, scoring under 20,000 votes just once, and being immune to fads that didn't have a backing like Reddit's. He skated to the final where he trounced Samus (though the campaign to back him helped) and showed he could have beaten Draven on any other day, plus had better contests than Clinkeroth and a rally-hindered Mario. His performance on Link in the bonus match was also one of the strongest we've seen in a decade, and this was a Link riding a wave of goodwill - having been seen as an innocent victim of shenanigans in the Link/Shepard/Draven match. While it is not the contest crown Snake and his fans so desperately crave, if nothing else Snake's position as the second-strongest character in the contests (surpassing the FF7 duo) was confirmed. If that wasn't enough, the reveal that a tampering in Draven's semifinal versus Mewtwo and Sephiroth was caused by Bacon's wife because she's a Snake fan made him even more beloved in B8. Konami might now be focusing Metal Gear on Raiden and Big Boss, but our cardboard box hero will always be top-notch. Fall 2018 Contest - Legends Division - 3 Seed * Finals Division Round 1 --- Lost to Zelda, 14350 49.68% - 14535 50.32% * Loser Bracket Round 1 --- Defeated Auron, 15915 61.48% - 9971 38.52% * Loser Bracket Round 2 --- Defeated (6) Sonic the Hedgehog, 16257 57.53% - 11999 42.47% * Loser Bracket Round 3 --- Lost to (2) Samus Aran 11345 43.52% - 14725 56.48% After the 2013 contest, Snake was arguably only behind Link and Cloud. Thus him doing well in a bracket that even split the Noble Nine was to be expected. But unfortunadely he would be no exception of an overall Metal Gear underperformance, even with an upcoming appearance in Super Smash Bros Ultimate to help. Snake was right away downed by a boosted Zelda, who he had handily beat back in 2005, even if he got more votes among GameFAQs' own (a contrast to Mega Man being upset to Pikachu two days prior while having the outside support). Thrown into the Loser Bracket, Snake then showed he was not that exposed to non-Noble Niners by easily beating Auron, before some 2006 deja vu: Sonic could not match up to Snake, but then Samus beat him, and by even worse percentages. And knowing that only Crono might be getting more neglected among the Noble Nine (Kojima left Konami on bad terms, and the company in turn released the badly received Metal Gear Survive and a goddamn Metal Gear-themed pachinko!) makes things even worse. Category:Contest Histories